Twenty-One Graduate Students Earn External Fellowships

11/19/20 Pratt School of Engineering

Highly competitive national awards will help 21 new and returning Duke Engineering graduate students conduct research on campus

the fitzpatrick center at duke university
Twenty-One Graduate Students Earn External Fellowships

Each year, the Pratt School of Engineering encourages graduate students to seek support from external fellowship awards. Earning these competitive fellowships goes a long way toward helping emerging scientists conduct their research while raising Duke Engineering’s profile and research portfolio in turn.

This year, new and returning Duke Engineering graduate students nabbed 21 fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense and the United States Air Force.

“Earning each of these fellowships is a highly competitive process,” said Jennifer West, the Fitzpatrick Family University Professor of Engineering and Associate Dean for PhD Education at Duke. “It is gratifying to see the talent and hard work of our exceptional doctoral students recognized at this level.”

Congratulations to This Year’s Recipients

Casey Baker

Casey Baker

Undergraduate Institution: University of Virginia
Duke Faculty Advisor: Yiyang Gong
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Erika Chelales

Erika Chelales

Undergraduate Institution: Tulane University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Nimmi Ramanujam
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Riley Deutsch

Riley Deutsch

Undergraduate Institution: University of Iowa
Duke Faculty Advisor: Nimmi Ramanujam
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Defense Science and Engineering

Lillian Ekem

Lillian Ekem

Undergraduate Institution: Yale University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Nimmi Ramanujam
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation, Sloan Research Fellowship

Gavin Gonzales

Gavin Gonzales

Undergraduate Institution: University of New Mexico
Duke Faculty Advisor: Shyni Varghese, Stefan Zauscher
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Carson Key

Carson Key

Undergraduate Institution: North Carolina State University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Charles Gersbach
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Tomer Rotstein

Tomer Rotstein

Undergraduate Institution: University of California Berkeley
Duke Faculty Advisor: Xiling Shen
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Curtis Shoyer

Curtis Shoyer

Undergraduate Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Duke Faculty Advisor: Brenton Hoffman
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Jonathan Su

Jonathan Su

Undergraduate Institution: Oregon State University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Ashutosh Chilkoti
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Cyrus Tanade

Cyrus Tanade

Undergraduate Institution: University College London
Duke Faculty Advisor: Amanda Randles
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

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Ashley Williams

Undergraduate Institution: University of Illinois
Duke Faculty Advisor: Jonathan Viventi
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Institutes of Health F31

Brittani Carroll

Brittani Carroll

Undergraduate Institution: University of Evansville
Duke Faculty Advisor: Aaron Franklin
Department: ECE
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Anne French

Anne French

Duke Faculty Advisor: Miroslav Pajic
Department: ECE
Fellowship: USAF Prestigious STEM PhD Fellowship

Spencer Hallyburton

Spence Hallyburton

Undergraduate Institution: Harvard University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Miroslav Pajic
Department: ECE
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Elizabeth Keys

Elizabeth Keys

Undergraduate Institution: California State University, Sacramento
Duke Faculty Advisor: David Smith
Department: ECE
Fellowship: Department of Defense Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation

Innocent Kironji

Innocent Kironji

Duke Faculty Advisor: Leslie Collins
Department: ECE
Fellowship: The National GEM Consortium

Randy Linderman

Randy Linderman

Undergraduate Institution: Cornell University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Yiran Chen
Department: ECE
Fellowship: Department of Defense National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program

Kavinayan Sivakumar

Kavinayan Sivakumar

Duke Faculty Advisor: Michael Zavlanos
Department: MEMS
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Brittany Smith

Brittany Smith

Undergraduate Institution: University of Connecticut
Duke Faculty Advisor: Aaron Franklin
Department: ECE
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Marcello DeLuca

Marcello DeLuca

Undergraduate Institution: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Duke Faculty Advisor: Gaurav Arya
Department: MEMS
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Judith Dominguez

Judith Dominguez

Undergraduate Institution: University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Duke Faculty Advisor: Christine Payne
Department: MEMS
Fellowship: National Science Foundation